Consumers are raising alarms over Viomi Technology Co.'s after-sales service, with reports of broken appliances under warranty being met with "no spare parts available" and unresponsive customer support lines.

A customer identified as Li Mou (pseudonym) shared his ordeal: his Viomi air conditioner came with an official 10-year free warranty, but just four years after purchase, the outdoor unit's mainboard failed. A service technician inspected the unit, said he would request a replacement mainboard from the company, and then vanished. After repeated follow-ups, Li was informed that the factory no longer supplies parts for that model, leaving him with a broken unit and no resolution.

Wang Hua (pseudonym), who bought a Viomi air conditioner for 1,099 yuan on Tmall's official flagship store, told a similar story. His unit, covered by a six-year warranty, completely lost its cooling function and only blew hot air. Technicians visited twice without fixing the issue; after a third request for service, the after-sales team simply stopped responding altogether.

In communications with the BUG column, multiple users pointed to a common thread: because "parts are no longer available," repairs have become nearly impossible, and even sympathetic customer service agents are powerless to help. Many also criticized Viomi's after-sales management as chaotic, citing instances of arbitrary charges and even technicians causing further damage to products.

The root cause appears to trace back to June, when Viomi Technology Co. issued a notice on adjustments to services for certain products. The announcement stated that production had ceased for 11 washing machine models, 20 water purifier models, 18 air conditioner models, and 9 refrigerator models. As a result, the manufacturers halted supply of spare parts for these units, and future repairs would depend entirely on the remaining inventory at designated service centers.

This leaves a significant number of existing users—many of whom are still within their warranty periods—facing the prospect that a failed core component could render their appliances permanently unrepairable.

Chinese regulations, such as the Rules on Repair, Replacement, and Return of Certain Commodities, mandate that producers of household appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners must guarantee the availability of compliant spare parts for at least five years after production stops. However, Viomi Technology Co.'s notice did not specify the actual production end dates, instead directly announcing when service would be discontinued.

Adding to the frustration, multiple users noted that Viomi only launched its air conditioner line in 2018, meaning even the earliest models sold are not yet 10 years old. "Even if you bought the very first Viomi AC they ever made and it was discontinued early, it still hasn't reached the 10-year mark—yet the company already says there are no parts," one user lamented.

An industry insider commented, "Home appliances are long-cycle durable goods. When a product is sold, the company bears years of after-sales responsibility, including parts supply. By stopping service without arranging long-term repair security for existing customers, Viomi appears to be shifting its operational burden onto consumers."

The BUG column observed that Viomi Technology Co. has already removed refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines from its Tmall flagship store and mobile app mall. However, some third-party platforms are still selling Viomi air conditioning units.

Where to begin?

The current after-sales crisis for Viomi's large appliances is largely a consequence of a strategic restructuring that took place two years ago. On August 31, 2024, Viomi Technology Co. completed the divestiture of its large appliance business. For a consideration of 65 million yuan, the domestic entity Foshan Viomi Electric Appliance Technology Co., Ltd.—which housed the refrigerator, washing machine, and air conditioner operations—was released from its VIE agreement and removed from the listed company's financials, coming under the personal control of founder Chen Xiaoping.

The listed company retained only water purifiers, range hoods, stoves, and water heaters, effectively shedding the persistently loss-making large appliance segment.

The immediate result was a swift return to profitability. In fiscal 2024, revenue grew 29.3% year-over-year to 2.119 billion yuan, with a net profit of 62.3 million yuan, versus a net loss of 89.3 million yuan in 2023.

But the turnaround proved short-lived. In the first half of 2025, performance peaked with net revenue of 1.4776 billion yuan, up 76.6% year-over-year, and attributable net profit of 120.4 million yuan, up 64.7%. However, the second half of 2025 saw a sharp reversal: revenue fell 25.9% to 950.6 million yuan, while attributable net profit plunged 70.2% to just 21.2 million yuan.

For the full year 2025, Viomi Technology Co. reported net revenue of 2.4282 billion yuan, up 14.6%, but attributable net profit slipped 1.9% to 141.6 million yuan. The weaker second half nearly wiped out the gains from the first.

Entering 2026, the trend has deteriorated further. According to the company's latest first-half 2026 earnings report, net revenue dropped 49.9% year-over-year to 740 million yuan, nearly halving from 1.4776 billion yuan in the same period of 2025. The company swung to a net loss attributable to shareholders of 26.3 million yuan, compared to a profit of 120.4 million yuan a year earlier.

From offloading large appliances to shore up financials, to a brief surge on the back of the water purifier business, to a growth stall in late 2025 and a swing to losses in early 2026, Viomi Technology Co. has demonstrated over two years that simply divesting a loss-making unit does not solve the underlying growth problem. As the water purification market faces subsidy tapering and intensifying competition, the loss of a second growth engine has left the company's performance pointing downward, almost by necessity.

Meanwhile, the massive base of legacy users left behind by the divested large appliance business finds its after-sales rights being progressively eroded.

Users call on Chen Xiaoping to deliver, not just promise

Following the August 2024 restructuring, the large appliance business—covering refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines—was moved out of the listed entity and placed under Chen Xiaoping's personal control. Legally, production and after-sales responsibilities for these products now rest with Foshan Viomi Electric Appliance Technology Co., Ltd. and its subsidiaries, not the U.S.-listed parent.

In the wake of the mounting after-sales complaints, some netizens have publicly urged Chen Xiaoping not to abandon the company's millions of long-standing customers. One affected user remarked, "Chen has always said Viomi is about user-oriented whole-home intelligence and solving real household pain points. But here's the hard truth: the biggest pain point for Viomi users is Viomi itself."

"At every launch event, it's all about future tech and smart homes, yet in reality, countless users are just begging for a simple replacement part to fix something that's broken." The user argued that discontinuing parts for air conditioners still under warranty, and offering only a paid replacement instead of a repair, effectively strips consumers of their right to repair—"turning durable goods into disposable cash grabs."

"Chen talks about being user-centric, but true user centricity isn't about the excitement of unboxing a new machine; it's about the assurance that when it breaks three or five years down the line, you can actually get it fixed." The user concluded: "Stop drawing castles in the sky, and start by rescuing the old users you've left behind."

Perhaps, before championing a return to "user pain points" and "tech-driven healthy living," Chen Xiaoping should first answer a more basic question: when an air conditioner promises a 10-year warranty but fails in its fourth year, where are the parts?